Bible Trouble: Queer Readings at the Boundaries of
Biblical Scholarship consists of an introductory
preface, fifteen essays, and a final response to the whole volume. All of these
pieces are clear and engaging. Written from a wide range of approaches and analyzing
different texts, the volume helpfully adds to the growing area of queer
readings in the field of biblical studies. Repeatedly, issues of gender,
sexuality, and challenging notions of normativity are brought to the
forefront. Individual essays include a works consulted section at the
conclusion. Each essay will be addressed below. Readers interested in the topic
of queer readings of Scripture will find many useful essays and thought-provoking
questions raised in this collection that deserves serious attention.

Teresa
J. Hornsby and Ken Stone (Already Queer: A Preface, pp. ixxiv) briefly
introduce the perspectives and content of the volume, emphasizing the shifts in
meaning and interpretation that naturally flow from queer readings of Scripture.

Ellen
T. Armour (Queer Bibles, Queer Scriptures? An Introductory Response, pp. 17)
provides an overview response to the rest of the essays in the book, as she
highlights the importance of these readings for challenging our
oversimplifications and the tendency to idealize characters in the biblical
narratives whether we possess a pro-LGBTQ perspective or not.

Deryn
Guest (From Gender Reversal to Genderfuck: Reading Jael through a
Lesbian Lens, pp. 943) moves from what has become a typical reading of gender
reversal by scholarsespecially feministson the Jael narrative and poem in
Judg 45 to a lesbian reading that builds on this scholarship, yet challenges
its own means of controlling meaning. Guest helpfully and thoughtfully explores
both the benefits and costs of such a reading of this character, and how that
reading should not too quickly be embraced without considering its effects on
the reader, who may or may not identify as queer.

Erin
Runions (From Disgust to Humor: Rahab's Queer Affect, pp. 4574), in a
reprinted article from 2008, explores the story of Rahab in Josh 2 as a tale
originally contrasting and critiquing the imperial ideology that would arise in
the later editorial production of the Deuteronomistic History. Here, Runions
emphasizes how the identity of the Canaanites in many parts of the Hebrew Bible
is nonheteronormative (p. 45), and how the figure of Rahab operates both to
support and to reject the Israelite response of disgust to these individuals
and groups labeled as outsiders. Runions contends that the story of Rahab,
however, cannot present her as an unqualified heroine, but perhaps is best
understood as a presentation of the trickster, who also serves to transgress
boundaries through humor and subversion.

Ken
Stone (Queer Reading between Bible and Film: Paris is Burning
and the Legendary Houses of David and Saul, pp. 7598) builds on a recent book by Erin
Runions.[1]
Specifically, Stone draws on Runion's comparative
analysis in one chapter between the prophet Micah and the documentary film Paris
is Burning that discusses drag balls in New York City (released in 1991),
and uses that same film in conversation with the biblical narratives of David
and the family of Saul as contained in 12 Samuel. Stone explores how both this
film and the biblical account engage the question of who will win or be
victorious alongside presentations and critiques of gender norms. Rather than
attempting to present a singular queer reading designed to promote or
highlight LGBTQ concerns in the biblical text, Stone argues for queer readings
(in the plural) that take as their point of departure a critical
interrogation, or active contestation, of the ways in which the Bible is read
to support heteronormative and normalizing configurations of sexual and gender
practices and sexual and gender identities (p. 94). The reader is challenged to
engage in this type of interpretation, whatever the method or approach to the
text employed might be.

Heidi
Epstein (Penderecki's Iron Maiden: Intimacy and Other Anomalies in
the Canticum canticorum Salomonis, pp. 99130) uses interpretative approaches from
New Musicologists to investigate a queer reading of this twentieth-century
musical composition based on the Song of Songs. The movements, sounds,
and compositional techniques are explored in relation to the biblical text with
particular attention to the elements of sexuality and intimacy that pervade the
text. The interplay between text and music opens up new questions and new
meanings for both the musical composition and the biblical composition.

S.
Tamar Kamionkowski (Queer Theory and Historical-Critical Exegesis:
Queering BiblicistsA Response, pp. 13136) responds to the two essays by Stone and Guest,
drawing from her own experience as a lesbian, Jewish, traditionally (that is,
historically-critically) trained biblical scholar. She argues that queer
readings are best and most effective when they probe new layers of meaning and
appreciation of the Bible, reveling in its complexities and its multiple
interpretations, just as rabbinic tradition (which she cites) has long
advocated.

Teresa
J. Hornsby (Capitalism, Masochism, and Biblical Interpretation, pp. 13755) explores
the interrelationships of capitalism, masochism, and portrayals of suffering
and submissionparticularly related to Jesus' death and to the depiction of
womenin biblical interpretation. In this sobering essay, she concludes that
while postmodernism has resulted in more acceptance of queer sexualities it has
also produced another means of control over such sexualities and that illusions
of liberation need to be challenged.

Jione
Havea (Lazarus Troubles, pp. 15773) reflects on the experience of reading
and interpreting the story of Lazarus from John 11 with inmates from the
Pacific Islands in Parklea Prison, New South Wales, Australia in 2007. This
intriguing presentation reveals that concerns and connections made by these
readers from an atypical (whatever this means) social location differ
significantly from many common approaches and conclusions, thus, queering
the passage and theological appropriations of it.

Sean
D. Burke (Queering Early Christian Discourse: The Ethiopian
Eunuch, pp. 17589) explores the ambiguities present in the figure of the Ethiopian Eunuch
(Acts 8:2640) in terms of gender, social status, ethnicity, and religious
identity. Ancient contexts for understanding masculinity and those identified
as eunuchs are helpfully summarized before reading this person, passage, and
book as queer examples that subvert unambiguous categories and meanings.

Manuel
Villalobos (Bodies Del Otro Lado Finding Life and Hope in
the Borderland: Gloria Anzaldúa, the Ethiopian Eunuch of Acts 8:2640, y Yo, pp. 191221)
begins with a summary of the visionary work by Gloria Anzaldúa and her
description of crossing borders into the next life and the alternative
reality she witnessed. This construction is put into conversation with the
multiple border-crossings identifiable in the narrative of the Ethiopian Eunuch
and then finally with the personal experience of the author. The essay
contributes an evocative commentary on issues of identity and hopeful
expectation for another world beyond the confinements of our present.

Joseph
A. Marchal (The Corinthian Women Prophets and Trans Activism:
Rethinking Canonical Gender Claims, pp. 22346) connects Paul's dominant script (p. 225)
for authority and group construction in 1 Corinthians and the likely experience
of the women prophets before and after entering the church at Corinth with the
dominant script from our present psychological authorities (such as the DSM-IV)
and the experiences of transgendered individuals. This comparative approach
opens up new questions and recasts some of the dynamics observed in the
biblical text, often simply moving from a static text with flat characters to
dynamic individuals living out complicated lives under the auspices of external
authorities attempting to define and control.

Gillian
Townsley (The Straight Mind in Corinth: Problematizing
Categories and Ideologies of Gender in 1 Corinthians 11:216, pp. 24781) employs the
approach advanced by feminist author Monique Wittig to read the stipulations
and reasoning in Paul's discussion of head coverings in 1 Cor 11. With
attention to both ancient and modern contexts, the construction of gender for
men and women and what she terms lesbianized men (pp. 251258) in 1
Corinthians is followed by a discussion of the hotly-debated
term κεφαλἠ (head) and how that
interpretation has been used to reinforce particular heteronormative frameworks.

Jay
Twomey (The Pastor and His Fops: Gender Indeterminacy in the
Pastor and His Readers, pp. 283300) presents a reception history approach to the
Pastoral Epistles emphasizing how issues of gender have been articulated or
assumed over the centuries, including readers such as Augustine, Chrysostom,
and the eighteenth-century commentator Philip Doddridge in his The Family
Expositor.

Lynn
R. Huber (Gazing at the Whore: Reading Revelation Queerly, pp. 30120) advocates
reading the book of Revelation through a queer-lesbian lens to engage
perceptions of gender and its relationship to political and economic
structures, a connection explicit in the construction of the Whore of Babylon
in the book itself. Rather than arguing that this book has nothing to say for
queer readers, Huber promises no easy answers, but a deeper appreciation of the
complexities and the multiple layers of meaning evidenced by queer readings of
jarring texts such as those found in this apocalyptic work.

Jeremy
Punt (Queer Theory, Postcolonial Theory, and Biblical
Interpretation: A Preliminary Exploration of Some Intersections, pp. 32141) provides a
helpful theoretical essay on the nature of queer theory, especially as it is
often associated with postcolonial readings, and how these play themselves out
in the field of biblical studies, with limited examples from the Gospels and
Pauline literature. As a basic introductory piece to establish the terrain of
the field, the essay could be used in a classroom setting quite easily and
effectively. In terms of structure of the volume, this essay could be read much
earlier in the sequence of analyses, providing a clear and concise approach to
some methodological questions surrounding queer theorymany of which are
implicit or explicit in previous essaysrather than being situated at the end
before the final response essay.

Michael
Joseph Brown (What Happens When Closets Open Up? A Response, pp. 34352) concludes
with an essay emphasizing the wide range of approaches in the volume, with
particular attention to the contributions by Hornsby, Havea, Burke, and
Huberall of which present a similar cautionary note: Be careful (p. 352). Those
advocating for the potential of queer readings must be cognizant of political
and social mechanisms that would attempt to control these approaches and their
practitioners even while providing the illusion of agency.

Steven J. Schweitzer, Bethany Theological Seminary

[1] Erin Runions, How
Hysterical: Identification and Resistance in the Bible and Film (New York:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).